Well, only SOME of the audience was on its feet, and it wasn't for Suzanne, because she did not come out to take a bow. The same was true last year. I have a feeling she doesn't come out because she doesn't want to upstage her dancers. If she did, there would surely by a standing O which would go on and on. Maybe some of the standers knew some of the dancers, but I have a feeling people were just appreciating Balanchine. The audiences were quite enthusiastic at all the performances.

Farrell Fan, did you go to the first or second weekend last year? I recall "the band", as an enthusiastic friend called the orchestra, remarking on how they had pulled together their performance in "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue", got steadily and rapidly better. As they did this year too. Another indication that this whole operation would perform even better given more time, i.e., money, and that its current excellence is limited by that and, generally speaking, not so much by the talents of the people present.

You guessed it, Jack, I was at only the first week's performances last year. So I never got to see Peter Boal riding to the rescue of the overworked Ben Huys. But I was happy to hear that everything came together better, including the band, in the second week. I understand that the Kennedy Center is now doing some fundraising specifically for the Farrell Company, so maybe that will help keep these wonderful dancers together longer. The projected six-week tour next October/November followed by an early December run at the KC certainly provides cause for optimism.